Commentary
The Story That Got a Reporter Jailed
The following is the article that led Malaysian courts to imprison
Murray Hiebert, a reporter for the Far Eastern Economic Review, for
scandalizing the court. The jail sentence was affirmed Saturday and
discussed in Monday's Review and Outlook columns. The original
article is reprinted here to provide details of the case. It originally
ran
in the Review (which is owned by Dow Jones & Co., publisher of this
newspaper) on Jan. 23, 1997, under the headlines "Malaysia: See You
in Court: A series of civil suits suggests growing litigiousness." The
trial court's objections are summarized in the accompanying box.
--Editors
By Murray Hiebert
KUALA LUMPUR--When it comes to litigation, Malaysia has a long way
to go to catch up with, say, the United States. But a spate of recent suits
suggests that it's heading that way.
The most recent case is playing out in a small court room in the
southwestern suburbs of Kuala Lumpur, where the mother of a
17-year-old high-school student is suing the International School of Kuala
Lumpur, claiming he was unfairly dropped from the school's debate team.
Damages sought: a record 6 million ringgit ($2.4 million).
The case has sparked intense interest among legal circles, educators and
foreign investors in the Malaysian capital. For starters, the thin,
bespectacled student, Govind Sri Ram, is the son of a prominent Court of
Appeals judge, Gopal Sri Ram. And many are surprised at the speed with
which the case raced through Malaysia's legal labyrinth. The trial began
on
January 6, less than seven months after a writ was filed with the High
Court. "Normally, in a civil case, you're lucky to get a hearing within
five
years," a veteran lawyer notes.
The main point of interest for lawyers is that
the case is breaking new legal ground. "It's the
first time in Malaysian history that someone is
suing on the basis of unfair discrimination,"
notes one. "Malaysia has no laws on discrimination."
Educators are also following the case closely. A hefty award for the
plaintiff would be a major financial burden on the school--and could hinder
Malaysia's efforts to attract foreigners. The institution, after all, was
established 30 years ago to educate the children of foreign businessmen
and diplomats. (Young Govind is among the 7% of the school's 1,650
students who are Malaysian citizens, most admitted because their parents
have spent years working overseas.)
"This is the first knowledge I have of any international school being sued
for
anything," says the administrator of another international school in Kuala
Lumpur. "Usually parents discuss problems with a teacher, and if that fails
they go to the headmaster and come to some decision."
Govind's mother claims in her writ that the school "unlawfully discriminated"
against her son by excluding him from a debate team that took part in a
forensics tournament in Taipei last year. The mother is seeking damages
from teacher Julie Dean, who served as coach of the school's debate team,
and Gail Vendeland, the school board's chairwoman.
The writ says Dean "intentionally relied on insufficient evidence" to accuse
Govind of "tampering" with material he had obtained from the Internet
while preparing arguments for the tournament. The teacher allegedly acted
against Govind at the instigation of other students who had "vested
interests" in preventing him from participating, Govind's lawyers wrote.
In a separate 12-page letter to the court, Govind's father says team-mates
discriminated against his son because they "never forgave Govind" for the
victory that qualified him to compete in Taipei.
The school's defence statement denies that Govind was actually excluded
from the tournament. It says the school could not send him to Taipei
because the competition called for two-man teams and Govind "at the
material time had no partner." The defence contends that Govind's partner
had refused to compete alongside him because of questions about the
source of some of Govind's preparation material.
The school also denies that Govind was dropped "on the basis that the
Plaintiff had falsified evidence." The lawyers wrote: "Another member of
the school team had queried a quotation by the Plaintiff from the Economist
magazine, as they or any opposing team in a tournament were entitled to
do under the rules governing the debate."
A suit like Govind's may sound rather un-Malaysian, but it's not the first.
Consider the libel case brought in 1994 against journalist M.G.G. Pillai
by
Berjaya Group Chairman Vincent Tan. A judge heard the case within
seven months, then ruled that four articles which appeared in the monthly
magazine Malaysian Industry in 1993 and 1994 were defamatory and
calculated to disparage Tan's personal and business reputation. The upshot:
Tan was granted 2 million ringgit in damages, the largest award in
Malaysian legal history. Pillai lost his appeal, so he's headed for the
Federal
Court, which will hear his case on January 27.
In another case, two Malaysian companies, MBf Capital and MBf
Northern Securities, filed a 60-million-ringgit defamation suit on January
10
against lawyer Param Cumaraswamy over statements attributed to him by
International Commercial Litigation in November 1995. The suit against
Param was the 13th filed over the same article. Among the other suits it
spawned, Berjaya's Tan sought 100 million ringgit in damages from legal
firm Skrine & Co. and its partner Tommy Thomas, and 70 million ringgit
in
damages from Asian Wall Street Journal reporter Raphael Pura. (The
Journal is owned by Dow Jones & Co., owner of the Review.)
Meanwhile, Govind Sri Ram continues studying at the International School
of Kuala Lumpur, despite his suit. He's also back on its debate team, but
teacher Dean is not his adviser. Govind initiated an injunction against
Dean
in September, prompting the school to agree that she would not serve as
coach as long he is on the team.